To Greece Immortal




(Excerpts from my poem entitled "Reflections on Greece"-
a tribute to Greece in ten thousand words to match the
beauty of Helen of Troy whose glittering eyes sent a thousand
ships to the topless towers of Ilion)


Once mortal eyes have gazed upon immortal Greece
Beloved of mighty gods, revered by hapless men
And seen the sacred heights of timeless Acropolis
Where Athena's aura in Apollo's resplendent sun
Still shines bright upon the restless Hellenic Seas,
They will forever seek out in faraway lands
And climes the same shores, the same skies
But to no avail, for on Earth's shifting sands
No such beauty exists nor such pristine grandeur
However hard one delves into the past or future!

From the southernmost tip of proud Pelopponese
Launch your imagination on the waters of the Aegean
On a voyage of myth worthy of bold and crafty Ulysses
And as the ship's prow tests the mien of Poseidon
Cast off the limiting shackles of your limited vision,
Akin to Plato's cave-dwellers in ignorance confined
Staring at nothing but shadows dancing in reflection
For eons and eons preys to vast illusions undefined.
Prepare heart and soul for your final port-of-call
For Santorini's majestic beauty, stark and regal!

As day's twilight fades into night and brightly
Unveils a star-dusted sky of unmitigated seeing,
Let the voices of ancient Hellas seep in subtly
Through the inner tegument of your dormant being
Until they resonate inside you like music divine
From whirling galaxies as if Apollo himself
Were playing to your senses, softened by wine
Drawn from Dionysus' secret cellar by stealth.
Mighty Zeus will bless you with absence of strife
Set afire in the Thera's crucible of  vibrant life!

And as dawn breaks over the surf's rising crest
There within sight behold the might of old Atlantis
Looming high and hot in the barest and fiercest
Of landscapes ever bequeathed to homen abilis.
And yet, what matchless and unparalleled beauty!
What an amphitheatre fit for gladiatorial combat!
There it'd seem, Heaven's ire rained on man's folly
And in a brief spasm of disbelief, where humans sat
There they perished trapped between foam and fire
Only to live again forever through the poet's lyre!

Tread gently on Santorini's cratered mountains
Lest you incur the wrath of bygone forlorn souls:
To this day from many ports, Naxians and Cretans
Sail the seas in cold dread of ghosts and ghouls
And to ward off evil they arm their intrepid prow
With the all-seeing oculus in daredevilish blue
Reminiscent of occult rituals in the land of Pharaoh
Whereto Atlanteans from the devouring flood flew.
The mystery lingers on: Ancient Eggypt and Hellas
Two fountains of the best knowledge that ever was!

Oh, land of  Homer, Euripides and Sophocles
Of Sappho on enticing Lesbos, of untold heroes
With unmarked graves worthy of Herakles!
Much have you taught us of weals and woes
That from time immemorial and into endless
Time turn life into hell and death into oblivion
And much wisdom was given us by Socrates
Who yet from shore to shore has no second.
But what utter desolation on your sad ruins!
Your Lost Marble decries the world's Elgins!

Oh Hellas!  The world feeds on your bones
And grows into strong eagles with talons
Of iron and steel.   It lords over and owns
Your art, your drama and your blighted sons -
Pale shadows of your past magnificence,
Proud and yet awed by such prestigious legacy:
Who wouldn't be, faced with so much science?
Through the years, it sucks you bare and dry
With the swagger of arrogant superiority
Born out of disbelief in your superior ability?

Shakespeare is oft quoted to prompt wisdom
And to this day Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony
Live on in the tongue of his bleak kingdom
Subjecting high and low-born alike to the tyranny
Of Anglo-Saxon  accent, the blue blood and what not!
Many a tear has been shed by many a so-called alien
While others have known dark terror and rot
For not knowing verses beyond their ken.
If only they knew that Shakespeare or Marlowe
Owed their much vaunted fame to the land of Apollo!

Of all English poets, the ones worth admiration
Are Byron and Keats to name perforce but a few:
Byron's death at Missolonghi won the devotion
Of Greek patriots of all time; he was like dew
In the dawning morn of Greek independence:
The blood of his youth shed on the sacred altar
Of selfless sacrifice has earned him the reverence
Of indomitable men who stare down the claws of war.
Byron wanted a land and people fit for his genius:
He found it all in Hellas not far from Mt. Olympus!

As for Keats, a thing of beauty is indeed a joy forever:
Its loveliness surely endures in man's undying love
Of ancient myths where oft the greatest leveller
Is the suffering brought upon humans from above.
In verses whose beauty matches the delicate design
Of Grecian urns, the philhellene that was Keats
Wrote of the dalliance of gods in golden cups of wine
Where love is always the prime mover of human feats
If not of their downfalls.  His poetry is a fine tapestry
Of legends woven into the consciousness of humanity!


And who hasn't heard of Philip of Macedon
And of his son, Alexander the Great, semi-divine,
Born of Olympias, destined to die in Babylon
Whose birth and death were by Egyptians divined
In a sand-seated Temple of Ammon at Sihwa?
What would history be without this prodigy
Of nature, this illustrious immortal warrior
Beloved of Ares, whose rose-scented body
Thrilled and amazed his valiant lifelong soldiers
That followed him to the remotest frontiers.

Both Jesus and Alexander died young at thirty-three:
It is said that the former brought peace to the world
While the latter blazed a trail of supreme tyranny
In all the lands through which like a storm he swirled.
History has judged both great but for different causes;
They are the light and darkness of the universe,
The Ying and the Yang whose balance brings favours
To the realm of the living or perhaps the reverse.
Alexander was a conqueror of nations and a lion
And Jesus was a lamb of peace for man's salvation!

So much time has flowed and flown away like rivers
Of tears in the long and woeful history of humanity.
Jesus is gone, so is Alexander; lovers and haters
Of one and the other too have gone unto eternity,
Sad reminders of the frailty of both meek and mighty.
As we stroll through the ruins of  an entire civilization,
Paying homage to those who created art of such beauty,
Out of nowhere there springs a fountain of inspiration
Pouring forth waters that stream into solemn verses
With which to sing the beauty that is only Hellas's!



Claudio
October  21, 2000




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